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Who flies the Buckeye?

ip568

Registered User
None
In VT-10 we flew the T-1A, the Navy's version of the T-33. It was fun but it showed me enough of tacair to help me decide to go VP when my VAH slot was taken away.

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Gatordev

Well-Known Member
pilot
Site Admin
Contributor
GPS devices are almost all solid-state... they care little about shock and perform fine in temperature extremes. Even my hand held Garmin is rated for 6g's and temps from 5-158F and that thing was only $200 ish.

The military seems to have this real aversion to utilizing GPS to the utmost of it's abilities.

But again, is your handheld certified? I doubt it. The GPS in my bird was solid state, but that didn't mean it always worked 4.0 because it was old. No bucks, no Buck Rogers. I mean that's really what it comes down to...NavAir has to have the money to pay for it. They have to invest in a certified GPS system in order to shoot approaches. And as Brett is saying, who the hell cares if you can shoot a GPS approach? It's still non-precision and it's not like you're going to use it around the boat. And is there any fleet aircraft besides the Phrog that doesn't have GPS now (-53's, maybe, but again, probably just on the Marine side)? So almost everyone has it, they just can't use the gay T approach. In fact, it looks like it's not the Navy that has the aversion.

I agree it's a great tool, and "should" be in every aircraft, but as those who've flown in the T-34 and to a lesser degree, the -57, you can see how much a kluge it turns out to be when you put new (cheap...it's the govt) gear in old equipment (NACWS, anyone?).
 

nittany03

Recovering NFO. Herder of Programmers.
pilot
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
Yes, but isn't the FAA is planning on moving away from VOR/TACAN navigation to GPS, including precision GPS approaches? Eventually the military is going to have to follow suit or risk being left in the dust, i.e. RVSM . . .
 

Gatordev

Well-Known Member
pilot
Site Admin
Contributor
That's great until China starts acting up and we turn the encryption back on. Again, I think it's a great place to head towards, but it's not perfect. BTW, just because you have GPS doesn't mean you have a signal that you can use to shoot an approach. GPS can be finicky on it's accuracy. TACAN always has the same inaccuracy. :)
 

Fly Navy

...Great Job!
pilot
Super Moderator
Contributor
No bucks, no Buck Rogers. I mean that's really what it comes down to...NavAir has to have the money to pay for it.

True. Take it from the Air Force. They have too much.

They have to invest in a certified GPS system in order to shoot approaches. And as Brett is saying, who the hell cares if you can shoot a GPS approach? It's still non-precision and it's not like you're going to use it around the boat.

GPS approaches will be precision. The FAA will do away with VOR and NDB. Not many fleet aircraft have a civilian ILS as far as I know, which also is the preferred approach at USAF fields, if I'm not mistaken.

I agree it's a great tool, and "should" be in every aircraft, but as those who've flown in the T-34 and to a lesser degree, the -57, you can see how much a kluge it turns out to be when you put new (cheap...it's the govt) gear in old equipment (NACWS, anyone?).

NACWS developed problems because of a change in the ATC system, not because it was bad. They just didn't update the NACWS software. Go figure.

Your points are certainly valid, but it sounds like the reasoning behind "Let's keep F-15s as long as possible, no one else has the technology"... and the addon to that should be "yet". The aviation world is moving ahead and the DoD is falling behind, at least in navigation.
 

Gatordev

Well-Known Member
pilot
Site Admin
Contributor
And when the EU gets Galileo up and running, that won't matter to anyone.

And when I star in a porn movie, I can say I've done Terra Patrick, but until then, it's a non-starter.

NACWS was crap before they changed the ATC freqs. Mafesto can probably tell us more about TCAS, but it's my undertanding that TCAS is far more accurate than NACWS is. More often than not, you'll get a NACWS hit after the traffic has gone by. It's something, and I'll give it that, but again, if more money had been spent, something better could have been used.

And what about the aircraft that will be flown until 2015+ (I'm looking at you HS/HSL)? Can it be overcome, sure. but those are examples of old airframes w/ only Tacan, and no real way to integrate GPS.

I think we're all in agreement. GPS is cool. I just don't think it's the answer quite yet. Squeeze, I don't know about Galileo. What's the timeframe?
 

Fly Navy

...Great Job!
pilot
Super Moderator
Contributor
NACWS was crap before they changed the ATC freqs. Mafesto can probably tell us more about TCAS, but it's my undertanding that TCAS is far more accurate than NACWS is. More often than not, you'll get a NACWS hit after the traffic has gone by. It's something, and I'll give it that, but again, if more money had been spent, something better could have been used.

TCAS would be cool to have. Crap, I've heard of Cessna's with them.

And what about the aircraft that will be flown until 2015+ (I'm looking at you HS/HSL)? Can it be overcome, sure. but those are examples of old airframes w/ only Tacan, and no real way to integrate GPS.

Thank you Cold War cuts, long felt into the future. Oh what's that on the horizon? An unconventional world war called "War on Terrorism"? We need new stuff? You can't have it.

(Disclaimer: not aimed at you, but at the bean-counters running the government)
 

TurnandBurn55

Drinking, flying, or looking busy!!
None
TCAS would be cool to have. Crap, I've heard of Cessna's with them.

The a$$-old T-39 got TCAS plugged into it too... worked a lot nicer than NACWS...

And yeah, Brett, same deal with the Hornet GPS/INS system... if that's what's holding us up from being certified, I'm knackered. Ehh, doesn't matter-- we could still shoot the approach in extremis-- not like lacking a civilian ILS (nother story entirely, ugh)
 

A4sForever

BTDT OLD GUY
pilot
Contributor
why is it that anytime someone brings up IFR stuff, somebody has to point out how hard it is with an NDB?

NEWSFLASH: If you're flying IFR with only an NDB, you're a fvcking moron.
Uh-Oh ... I guess my secret and I are both outed .... my first IFR approach into Peking (or Beijing, if you prefer) in the 747 was an ADF approach to minimums. That's all the Gooks of Hazard had available at the time -- no BINGO and no business "deals" with the "white devils" for better equipment at that point in time ..... :) :eek:

I shot an ADF on the side of a typhoon into Guam (747 again) as that was all the station had "up" .... no BINGO -- Saipan was down completely ... :) :eek:

The list goes on ..... and on .....
 
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